This giant model stopped a terrible plan

Why HN readers recommended it

HN recommends it as a short, fascinating story of a scale model preventing a terrible engineering decision.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

Tom Scott

Topic

bay model engineering history

Format

explainer

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

5

HN mentions in dataset

6

Recommendation years in dataset

2018–2026

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Tom Scott has a great video[0] about a similar attempt to dam the San Francisco Bay that got a lot closer to actually happening. So see if it was practical, the US Army Corps of Engineering built a giant scale model of the SF bay …

• I don't think we can change the fact that people generally listen to what actors (and other charismatic people) have to say. This is nothing new. For a local example, San Francisco's John Reber, and the plan he pushed to turn the Bay into a …

• > It’s reminiscent of the plan suggested by a school teacher, to dam the San Francisco Bay, which was taken seriously enough to be modeled to scale by the military. For those unaware, I learned of this plan via this short Tom Scott video. Fascinating. …